When did you see LightWave for the first time?

I first heard about it a few years back, possibly in 2000 or 1999. Back then I was a Max user, and I used to frequent a number of Max-related sites and tutorial pages and such. I came across a site of one Max user who wrote lots of tutorials, and he mentioned that he had recently switched to LightWave. On his site he had some renders of his newer work, and I took a look at them, and thought that it looked like a pretty cool program, hehehe.

When did you first start using it?

When I went to go work at a studio here in Cape Town (South Africa) in mid-2001, which was back in the days of version 6.5, so I've only been using it for just shy of two years now. They used LightWave for all their 3D, so I had to use it too. I learnt the basic ins and outs of the program extremely fast, within a day or two, after which I was assigned to work on my first major project. I was actually hired at the company as a texturing artist, so I was put to work on the texturing side of things.

What do you like about the package?

Since I am a modeller and texturing artist, I don't have any major complaints about the package. I pretty much like everything about the tools I use, although a few additions here and there would be nice. What I really love about the program is the workflow. I love the split Modeler and Layout (something I sincerely hope they never change), because I really feel that it helps you to concentrate on each part more efficiently. Before I started using LightWave, I always found myself modelling little bits of a model and then spending ages rendering it and trying to make it look nice, even if the model thus far was nothing more than some misshapen blob. Having the Modeler entirely separate discourages that, and I really like that. It helps me to focus. Modeler is extremely intuitive - when I model, I don't need to think much, I just model - and that's cool!

Another thing that I really like about LightWave, and this is probably odd to mention, is the interface. I CAN'T STAND gimmicky or totally iconic interfaces in programs. The straightforward, purely functional UI works great for me. I also like the subdued colours, although I personally wouldn't mind if that brushed steel look was optional.

Sub-Ds - something that used to troubled me was organic modelling. In LightWave, I just found it so incredibly easy with sub-d modelling. 

Another thing that many people struggle with and I totally love is the UV mapping toolset. I adore working with UV maps and even editing them! I find that LightWave's UV mapping tools are easy to use, and a pleasure to work with.

What could be improved for you?

I am sure that if I was an animator, I would be asking for some improvement in that regard. I have rigged and animated characters on only a few occasions, and I found the whole thing overly complex. However, I actually really don't enjoy animating at all, and don't ever intend to really get involved in it, so I can't really gripe about that.

I do think that in some places a little more control would be nice. In certain gradients and layer blending options, it would be cool to have a few extra points of control, like the ability to choose from a list what things you would like to affect and vice versa. For example, it would be great if the Light Incidence gradient could be affected by more than just one light. If you are making an alpha layer, it would be cool to be able to choose what layers below that layer you would like it to act as an alpha for, instead of just the layer directly below it. It's mostly small niggly things like that that every now and then I find myself wishing for. There are always ways around things, but it would be cool for it to be solved by an extra little option. One other pretty major tool that I would like to be included in the package is really good sub-surface scattering - that's definitely on my wishlist for a future release.